The Stars Must Be Crazy
by Skyran
Summary: After the Clans left the forest, Ravenpaw was left with Barley, uncertanty and doubt. But when he finds a book describing his and his friends' adventures, he's about to meet something he never reckoned on.The Fandom.T for mild Slashshipping.
1. Chapter 1

The Stars Must Be Crazy

By Leafstar

In the clear midday, a black cat made his way through the bright forest, winding around tree trunks, but cautiously looking up at intervals at the sky above. Snow still littered the ground, after the late Leaf-bare snowfall from two nights before, collecting in small glittering piles, and glinting from the roots of trees. It was warm, and Ravenpaw's whiskers twitched as he got his paws soaked making his way through one of them that barred his way.

His fur rose slightly in response to the sudden cold, and he shivered, sending ripples down his sleek black pelt. Even though it was leaf-bare, he was still well fed, and had all the young vigor of a healthy wild cat. Not as large as some others, he was lithe, but clearly much stronger than a soft kittypet, despite the fact that he did not live with the other Clans.

The small piece of wooded land left near the New Twolegplacethe imposing, frightening rows of twoleg nests that had taken the place of Ravenpaw's beloved forest that had once been home to the four Clans of wildcats, threaded behind walls of slatted fence, which Ravenpaw avoided as he made his way through the trees. Soon, much too soon, he arrived at the end of the small patch of trees, the only bit of what had been his first home left. It opened up to rolling hills of golden stalks, which folded slightly under the cool breeze.

Ravenpaw padded eagerly through the sheaves, weaving in and out, and careful not to accidentally scratch his pads on their spiky sides. This was an inconvenience he had always been unhappy of ever since he had fled from ThunderClan: the lack of a medicine cat. Nether he nor Barley, the other tom he lived with in the barn, knew much of herbs, or where to find them, so they simply had to be careful, and hope that if one of them got hurt, it wasn't so serious that it wouldn't heal on its own.

A dirty stream appeared before him, creating a nasty-smelling ditch in between the fields; a runoff for the water that irrigated the plants, and swirled with a funny smelling liquid that cast a dark rainbow into the water that neither Ravenpaw nor Barley would drink, even if horribly dehydrated. Ravenpaw forded it, ears flicking back, and hissing slightly as the smelly water lapped at his legs, and leapt out again at the other side, shaking his fur, and licking his dirty paws, grimacing at the taste. Sniffing around, he located a vole he had buried by the bank earlier that morning, and dug it up again. Clutching the prey in his mouth, he made his way slowly now towards a structure that had emerged over the rise.

The barn came into view, its red paint peeling and several of the outer slats of wood rotted away, leaving long gaps in the walls. Ravenpaw squeezed through one of these, and emerged into the dimly lit barn, blinking happily.

"Ravenpaw!" The happy meow came from a black and white cat, who was perched on one of the haylofts. He leapt down the rungs of the ladder that was leaned against the plank, tail held high in welcome, its tip twitching with pleasure. Barely was a little bigger than Ravenpaw, and bulkier. He had keen green eyes, but an easygoing demeanor, which was displayed as he padded up to Barley, gave him a friendly butt of the head, and licked him behind the ear.

Ravenpaw deposited the vole on the little pile of fresh-kill they kept in one of the corner, and Barley followed, patient and unrushed.

"I wasn't sure where you had gone," meowed Barley, watching Ravenpaw as the smaller cat gave the white splotch on his chest a quick lick, and picked some hay out of his pelt. "You where up early."

Ravenpaw shrugged, not quite meeting Barley's eyes.

"I had a nightmare."

Barley gave a sympathetic purr, and ran his white tail down Ravenpaw's flank. "About the monsters?"

Ravenpaw nodded. Though it was really many moons ago, Ravenpaw was still haunted by the monsters that had come through the forest and torn up the trees, spat out dirt, and chased out the rest of the cats that had lived there. "I can't help but wonder what happened to them, and if they ever found a home."

"Have a little more faith in your friends," meowed Barley gently. "Firestar wouldn't let anything happen to ThunderClan. StarClan is watching over them."

Ravenpaw didn't say to Barley how he wasn't so sure StarClan had much power out of their skies. He didn't even know if they would be able to go with the Clans when they moved either. For all his faith in his warrior ancestors, he had a shrewd suspicion that they might be helpless against the actions of the Twolegs.

"Stop worrying," urged Barley. The black and white cat wasn't normally very talkative, but he clearly couldn't bear to see Ravenpaw so upset. "They're fine. You'll see someday. They probably found a nice new forest far away from Twolegs, and have set up territories, and found a place to speak to StarClan."

When Ravenpaw still looked sadly uncertain, Barley said hesitantly, "Maybe you should go to the Moonstone."

Ravenpaw looked up, surprised. The Moonstone, the place where the Clans used to speak to StarClan, where apprentices journeyed to and Medicine cats congregated every half moon. Mothermouth had been ripped up by the Twolegs' monsters, but the Moonstone remained.

"I will," promised Ravenpaw.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ravenpaw, aren't you hungry?"

Barley's quiet mew came from the thick pile of straw softened with feathers and fur that was usually shared by both toms. Ravenpaw, who had woken before light, looked down from the dew-dampened window in the barn, to his friend. He was very hungryhis stomach was rumbling and the little patters of mice in the barn were very tempting. But he knew he wasn't allowed to eat.

"I can't, Barley," meowed Ravenpaw with a sigh, leaping back down off the sill and padding up to his friend. "In the Clans, whenever the cats went to visit the Moonstone, they had to fast first. Even if we don't have to make such a long journey, I should still honor their traditions. I only wish I had the herbs that the Medicine cats used to give warriors and apprentices before they left."

Purring quietly, Barley nuzzled Ravenpaw affectionately. Ravenpaw tensed, then relaxed, as he allowed to older tom to lick him gently between the ears. Their tails touched gently, and Ravenpaw reflected briefly on how happy and content he was with Barley.

"Someday we'll learn more about herbs and healing," meowed Barley, nodding earnestly. "But luckily, living in a barn doesn't seem to demand too much of that. You'll be fine to Highstones, and then after you speak to StarClan, you can hunt again."

"Right," meowed Ravenpaw. He felt nervous, and his pelt pricked anxiously. He had never tried to speak to StarClan beforeand he was even more afraid that he wouldn't be able to reach his warrior ancestors when he got there.

Ravenpaw had been awake all night, ever since he had told Barley he was going to go to the Moonstone, fearfully running over possibilities of the day to come in his mind. _What if?_ The words seemed to haunt his mind, flaunting with hundreds of outcomes.

_What if StarClan doesn't want to talk to me?_

_What if StarClan has gone?_

_What if the Twolegs have taken away the Moonstone?_

_What if the Clans have been destroyed?_

Ravenpaw tried to shake these discouraging thoughts out of his mind as he and Barley prepared to go. He waited as Barley joined him by the barn door, and the two padded out together, flanks gently brushing.

They made their way through the rolling fields of farmland that blanketed the small hillsides around the barn, padding through the tall wheat fields, and crossing small beds of dirt that were home to growing plants, each planted in strange, strait lines.

The two stopped at small dirt Thunderpath north of their barn, cautiously slinking around giant, green and rustic-looking monsters that were parked off to the side, that appeared to be asleep.

"Plant-eaters," whispered Barley as Ravenpaw ducked under a fence slat, and shot across the small dirt path, emerging safely to peep through some weeds on the other side. Barely joined him, and the two only hesitated to give the slumbering giants a cautious look before turning slightly east, and running across a small garden of sweetly smelling herbs. The crazy mix of smells baffled Ravenpaw's senses as he charged across its soft, overturned soil with Barley, but was two worried not to get caught by the Twolegs in the nearby nest to stop and investigate. As he squeezed under a hole in the fence that bordered it, he looked out and saw emptiness.

The land had been scraped bare, beyond the confines of the falsely manicured lawns and little patches of forests the Twolegs lived in. The rolling hills that had once been the WindClan moors now lay desolate and bleak, stark of all living things. Peering anxiously off into the western distance, Ravenpaw saw several big yellow monsters with giant, drooping jaws and sharp glinting teeth asleep on a nearby rise.

_They help the Twolegs. They chew up the earth and chase away all the prey._

Ravenpaw shivered as they made their way briskly across the hills, the thing spiky weeds that managed to grow out of the hard, cold ground pricking the pads on the underside of his paws, and causing him to wince when their little barbed heads caught in his fur. Even the wind seemed lonely as it whistled over the bare earth, no trees or grasses to muffle its cry.

"It can't be too far now," meowed Barley anxiously, as he and Ravenpaw stopped to rest on a rise. The dead ground seemed to go on forever, and all they could scent was the stench of monsters, the dusty weeds, and the faint smells of rabbits long gone. "We have the least amount of distance between us and Highstones of all of the Clans."

"Look!" meowed Ravenpaw suddenly. To the northeast, there lay a rise, behind which a few dark looking trees grew, crowned by strange lines that stretch from blank trunks that stuck up into the sky. Around it clustered many monsters, surrounded by giant boulders, and the lip of what seemed to be a

"It's the quarry!"

The two cats exchanged brief looks and began to run, Barley seeming to be getting excited despite himself and the fact that he had never had any experience in Clan ritual. It took very little time before they had reached the hill, which was host to some dry, thin twisting yellow grass. Crouching in this, they approached the slumbering monsters cautiously, then froze.

Twoleg voices were sounding, loud and obtuse from around the giant, tumble-down ravine that was host the cave where the Moonstone lay.

"They got here first!" whispered Ravenpaw fearfully, and Barley looked guardedly and anxiously at the orange-clad Twolegs that swarmed the sacred ground.

"What're you going to do?" meowed Barley softly back, not daring to look away from the Twolegs, as though he was transfixed with their activities.

"I've got to get to the Moonstone! Barley, can you cause I distraction, and get them away from the entrance before they find it and block it up or anything? I'll run in, speak to StarClan," Ravenpaw's mouth went very dry, "and get out again before they notice."

Barley nodded, looking determined. He flexed his claws, and fluffed out his black and white coat.

"Ready?" the tom meowed, a steely glint appearing in his green eyes.

"Ready," replied Ravenpaw, tensing to run.

"Go!"

Barley streaked past the monsters, and down to where the Twolegs were working, yowling and screeching. There were some yells, and Ravenpaw crept over the lip of the hill to watch. His friend was weaving in between the stick-like legs of the Twolegs, clawing at exposed, furless skin, and leaping up as though to bite. The Twolegs were shouting, and waving their arms, trying to catch the mad cat that had appeared out of nowhere.

Creeping off to one rocky side, Ravenpaw charged down the slope, leaping from boulder to boulder along the side of the quarry, slipping in between crevices, until he appeared in front of the opening, a dark, jagged hole split into some of the lower rocks. A thin, cool breeze wafted out of it, with the promising smell of damp air and wet stone.

"Ravenpaw!"

Ravenpaw whipped around, and gasped. A few of the Twolegs had managed to get a hold on Barley, who was squirming and biting, only to have his scruff jerked back away from the Twoleg male's arm.

"Barley!"

Some of the Twolegs had noticed Ravenpaw, and were approaching quickly.

"Ravenpaw, run!"

The Twolegs were dragging Barley, who was still doing his utmost to get out of their grasp, away, towards a small, white monster with its sides open.

Ravenpaw dived into the crevice just as a Twoleg dove at him, his hands brushing Ravenpaw's tail as it disappeared into the darknes.


End file.
